eight bit reggae

back in the 80s, everybody and their mom had a Commodore 64. for years, the C-64 reigned on top of the home computer market. when it dropped, it was years ahead of its time and it took years for the people who programmed software for it to fully work out all the possibilities for it. part of this was due to its wonderful SID audio chip. unlike previous machines that only allowed for a blip or beep, the SID was a fully programmable synth chip that made for all kinds of memorable gaming experiences in my youth.

for years, electronic musicians tried desperately to escape these digital soundscapes. as technology got better, the cold blips got replaced with warmth and the now sounds are almost indecipherable from real instruments these days. however, as we all know, retro is in. mining the past is the new future and more and more artists are bringing back the old-school synth sounds and making something that is a mixture of the new and old. one of my newest and favoritest recent discoveries are doing just this and seem to be having a blast at it.

Jahtari is a small group of musicians merging their love for two things that I can't get enough of lately: reggae/dub and the early 80s sound. there name might scare you- perhaps you haven't seen such a combination since the dark days of the ska movement tried to insert their name witfully into every crevice (a la Mephiskapheles). (my personal favorites that never seemed to happen (YET) are skoth (ska + goth) and rastabilly)

anyway, Jahtari is doing good things. they do not have any commercially available releases just yet, but they do have a number of net-released 7 inches (complete with vinyl sound mixed in), EPs, and mix-tapes which are all available for download. throw in their clutch of histories and links, and their website has a pretty damn good thing goin for it!

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